Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, we give him to New South Wales. He had a brief interaction with St George—I thank the member for that interjection. When the cost-benefit analysis was finally released it warned that the move could delay investigation and approval processes, adversely affecting the industry. It also cautioned against the loss of regulatory scientists—the experts responsible for the critical work—foreshadowing how this would affect the ability of the agency to meet its KPIs. By May 2023 the staffing crisis within the agency was actually raised in estimates.

It's not like the former government did not know there were problems. The former agriculture minister commissioned a report into the regulatory system in September 2019 and then sat on the report for a year without taking any action. It has taken a Labor government to step in and resolve these issues. Labor is helping the bush because we govern without fear or favour. We appointed a new board chair and CEO to provide the leadership required to revitalise and reform the APVMA so it could continue to serve farmers like the honourable member opposite. We also removed the requirement that staff be Armadale-based: therefore, attracting high-quality candidates from further afield and not just because their postcode happened to be 2530, smack bang in the middle of the New England electorate.

The 2023 Clayton Utz review of the APVMA noted that some reviews for chemicals were subject to decades of delay. In response, the minister for agriculture issued a ministerial direction to resolve outstanding reviews, and significant progress has been made. Letting the APVMA get on with its job is precisely what this Labor government is doing when it comes to the herbicides paraquat and diquat. These chemicals are used to manage weeds in grain and other horticultural farming and have been under review by the APVMA. As a result, the APVMA proposes to apply some limitations to their use, including at high rates of applications that pose an unacceptable level of risk to the environment—and the people around that environment, obviously—and when the poisoning risk is not adequately mitigated. The proposed regulatory decision was released on 30 July this year and still allows usage at lower rates and early in the season. Public consultation ended on 29 October. This proposal has received support from the interim CEO of Grain Producers Australia, who agrees with the measures to tighten rules against their safe handling.

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